During the opening keynote of the Apple Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Apple unveiled several new hardware and software technologies. Despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepping aside to give keynote duties to Senior V.P. of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller, there was a certain level of anxiety as attendees were still unsure what to expect.

Apple kicked off the event by announcing a new 17" MacBook Pro, which was promoted as the "world's thinnest 17" notebook," as it's just 0.98 inches thick and weighs only 6.6 pounds. The notebook promises 1920 x 1200 resolution and a new battery technology that is able to increase battery life to about eight hours during a single battery charge.

Apple believes the eight-hour battery is the most innovative new feature of the laptop, as it's the longest battery life ever for an Apple product, with the company able to increase battery life while keeping the size of the laptop small.

Pricing for the latest Apple laptop will start at $2,799. Apple expects to begin shipping the laptop later this month.

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The HP EliteBook claim is more than a little misleading -- to get the 24-hour claim you need to order the best-possible battery configuration, which actually involves two batteries and a swap in between. The stock battery is still good but nowhere near the 24-hour mark.

Apple's claim is very impressive for a notebook with a 17-inch display and (in power-saving mode) 9400M video.

While the battery life is pretty impressive, their innovation really isn't all that amazing. Basically, they decided to go with a non-removable battery, allowing them to fit a larger capacity battery as they don't have to waste as much space for the battery enclosure.

I hear this reply used a lot when people don't have a leg to stand on and they know it.

quote: I get about 3-hours from my current 17" MBP for normal use so 8-hours is pretty amazing.

Just because your current MBP uses old tech doesn't mean squat. Non-replaceable battery in a 17" enclosure can #1 cram more battery cells into the device, thus adding in more power. #2 the display is LED based this time around leading to less power requirements over old systems. I wanna see this thing run at 8 hours battery life without downclocking the processor and FSB into the ground. Until it can do that, 8 hours is nothing more than a gimmick for word documents.

Right, but I think its rather screwed up that Apple, and for that matter every other computer company likes to claim long battery lives but the system is running not much faster than a Blackberry in most cases.

Pardon? Correct me if I am wrong but you know bugger all about how the battery is constructed beyond what you have read. Given this, what honestly makes you think that the battery life delivered (and let's not forget that this refers to the length of a single charge and the total lifespan of the battery itself) is simply due to its physical size and using an LED screen?

Wait until the reviews come in and then you can jump down my throat. I too am interested to see what the real-world performance is but the attitude that this is some sort of sleight of hand without any knowledge of the product itself is just annoying.